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Topic: Forum Rules & Guidelines (Read 3062 times)

Welcome to PackerChatters Forums which are provided as a round-table discussion area for intelligent discussion of Green Bay Packers football.

We ask that all visitors to PackerChatters Forums abide by the rules of this Forum. We recommend that you visit each of the distinct Forums and read along with the threads for a while before posting. Then you may get a good feeling for how the Forums works.

Here is how we Moderate our Forums and what will happen;

If you post anything which any of our Moderators finds demeaning to another poster, you get;

1) Warning and level adjustment for 1st time offenders. Level not switched back to zero for at least 60 days. Warning is very simple you will receive from the Moderator: Example "Unacceptable name calling in post. Next time you get a time out."

Punishment will be handed out based on the severity of the offense (mod's discretion)

Repeat offenders will be dealt with more severely

Please read further;

PackerChatters is an actively moderated group with specific individual Forums that have their own purpose. This set of rules is established to guide the moderators and administrative staff in their efforts. The intent behind the formulation of these rules is to achieve these goals:

• Allow aggressive, open and entertaining discussion and debate so long as the topic in some way relates to Green Bay Packers football.

• Allow participation and promote participation by any who desire to take part. New participants are welcomed and encouraged to join the community.

• Actively maintain the intended focus of this Forum: a focused brand of Green Bay Packers football discussion and analysis.

• Actively protect the Forums from disruption.

After running the PackerChatters Forum for years, we as moderators understand that the best discussion often occurs in the form of debate. Debate may be aggressive, irreverent and dare we say confrontational. There is no desire to make this a PG-rated board; however, the rules forbid blatant personal attacks against individual posters. This disrupts the Forum, and makes it uninviting to potential visitors.

An attack on an opinion is not considered out of bounds. Indeed, the best debate is often direct and challenges another's opinion. If this sort of give and take is distasteful to a poster, it is recommended that the poster not participate in our Forums. A certain amount of mental toughness is embedded in the Forum's culture, but one that is able to draw the distinction between an attack on a poster's ideas related to the Green Bay Packers without meaning the attack is personal in nature. If you do not believe you can make that distinction and will retaliate with a personal attack without responding to the content of a challenging post, this is not the best Forum for you. The moderators will not obstruct playful parody, and other forms of good-natured banter between posters.

Disruptive posts are those with the purpose of antagonizing the participants of this Forum, or are posted in numbers solely to prevent free discourse on a topic. Posting that is not topical, or is insulting to fans of teams and would likely invite disruptive reprisals is considered disruptive.

The use of foul language is not constructive to getting one's point across is not necessary and not allowed. Just think 'G-rated' or that your 11 year old son/daughter are reading the Forums (we do have young people in here).

The following are examples of posts that will consistently be moved to another forum on PackerChatters, deleted, or if some of the post has redeeming content, selectively edited.

First, the easy stuff

1. If a post is spam or posted with the intent to manipulate the board (moving other posts down or off the page), no posting of information from 'Pay or Premium' websites, if the post does not have a descriptive title, if the post title is all in upper case, multiple Topics on the same subject, if the post contains political content, if the post is even slightly off topic, if a post, email or PM is advertising, promoting or soliciting other message boards or personal websites not authorized by the staff - they will be moved or deleted.

Now the harder stuff

2. If a post attacks fans or teams, either individually or as a group, the post will be deleted, moved, or selectively edited.

PackerChatters has a long history of welcoming and even soliciting participation by fans of other teams. Some of our best long-term posters are not Packers fans, nor should their reputations on other forums influence their ability to discuss football when they want to enter PackerChatters Forums. Fans from other teams provide a reality check.

Parody in discussion is allowed but referring to NFCN fans or teams as Toothless Bears, Lioness' or Queens is not good form. Describing a team that "sucks" or in other colorful terms is fair game if a post is analytical in nature. For example, "Detroit really sucks" should be discouraged but "The Lions defense sucks primarily because of their weak secondary" (for example) is fair game.

An attack on fans includes Packers' fans you might deem as lesser or "not true fans". The base assumption is we are all true Packers fans to be fanatically following the team via our website PackerChatters.com. Attacks on fans and fans behavior will be dealt with by our Moderators and Admins.

If you cannot readily discern these distinctions, lurk until you can.

3. Any personal attack will be deleted.

The distinction between the post and poster must be clear. Lurk until you understand the distinction. For example "you suck" will be deleted 100% of the time if it is in content or in title. "Your take sucks because....." (With supportive evidence) is absolutely fair game and if you don't have thick enough skin to anticipate such a reaction if you get out with a strong opinion, this is not the best Forum for you. Any post that attacks or belittles a person will be deleted. This can include direct and indirect put downs to a person such as "you never coached, you never played the game, etc

4. Posts discussing moderation are discouraged and will be moved elsewhere if posted on PackerChatters.

Feel free to either rip us or praise our virtues on PackerChatters, just don't do it in the Forums as it does not pertain to Packers football. Mods are always available for contact through email.

On occasion, you may end frustrated if you are on the other side of what you deem a disruptive post and rules prohibits retaliation. Three courses of action are available.

• The first is an email to a mod with a title like "Review Requested". Think of this as your replay button to the booth. The post that inspired it will be deleted, moved, or left intact. This is the final judgment and the issue is closed.

• Walk away. This is only a football forum, not a home invasion.

• The third and preferred option is to completely ridicule the offending post with facts, content, logic and witty repartee.

5. Gray Areas

Mods hate gray areas and we receive many PMs and emails that require us to make judgment calls.

Mods do not seek to delete posts for fun. They seek to maintain a Forum that promotes Packers discussion. On occasion, posts that fail to meet the overall goals of the Forum may be deemed disruptive and may be moved, edited or deleted without notice.

Disruptive posts will be actively moderated in the sense that they will be deleted, edited or relocated.

While the moderators understand that discussion of Green Bay Packers football can lead to many varied subjects (e.g. draft prospects, college football players and coaches, other NFL teams, etc) topics that cannot be specifically related to the Green Bay Packers will be moved or deleted.

This is not censorship.

Finally, decisive decisions will be the rule and PackerChatters is an actively moderated forum. Moderating a Forum is a thankless and payless job. Mods only do the best they can as they see fit on a given day.